Money Becomes King- Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers

Money Becomes King by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers is a song that brings consumerism and greed to center stage. Money Becomes King was released on the groups 11th studio album, The Last DJ  in October of 2002.

After choosing this song I did some digging on why Tom Petty would write this and even go so far as to opening his shows with this song. It turns out that Tom Petty was a big advocate for keeping his music fairly priced no matter how famous he became. He uses this song to address consumerism-culture and greed within the music industry. Tom Petty was involved in ongoing battles with his record label (MCA Records) in the 80’s centered around pricing of both his music and his merchandise. He wanted his music to always be accessible to his fans. Tom went so far as to threaten MCA that he would rename the album Eight Ninety Eight after they raised prices of his albums to $9.98 or withhold the music entirely. 

In the song, Tom opens with a narrative style lyricism, prompting the listener to think back with an open mind to a time “when everything wasn't up for sale” . He goes on to describe a “fictional” rock band musician named Johnny (I presumed it could be John Lennon), who gave in to record labels and allowed himself to be used as a consumerism puppet. Tom talks about the “time before money became king”, and about how Johnny's music “spoke to his soul...Every verse a diamond... every chorus gold”. I think this lyric ties in how effective musicians lyrics are in creating meaning and connection, and that is valuable, especially in persuasion. Tom also touches on the bigger problem of marketing media when he sings this verse:

“Well I ain't sure how it happened

And I don't know exactly when

But everything got bigger

And the rules began to bend

And the TV taught the people

How to get their hair to shine

And how sweet life can be

If you keep a tight behind”

After this point, the song takes a darker turn for our musician Johnny. It seems as though Johnny has become famous, and is falling victim to the same “superstar pricing” that Tom so rejected. He takes another jab at the record labels and powers that be when he sings, “...they raised the cost of living... how could we have known...they'd double the price of tickets to go see Johnny's show?”. It is even more evident that Johnny has given in when Tom describes him lip syncing a lite-beer commercial before opening his show. 

At the end of the song, Tom speaks of his boredom and distaste for his once favorite artist. He reveals that the magic of the music has become diluted with the craving of lite-beer and alludes to that being the moment that he realized money had become king.

“... I tried to rock on with him

But I slowly became bored

Could that man on stage with everything

Somehow need some more?

There was no use in pretending

No magic left to hear

All the music gave me

Was a craving for lite-beer

As I walked out of the arena

My ears began to ring

And money became king.”